“It had its face uncovered. Its pasty pale face, a man’s face, but eyeless as an egg, like a maggot in a grave.”

Jordan’s gift for vivid description is apparent from the first pages. He paints a portrait of a Myrddraal, a servant of the Dark One, in stark and grotesque terms. The lack of eyes suggests the lack of a soul, and the evocative metaphor “maggot in a grave” leaves no doubt on which side of the moral divide the creature dwells.

“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass leaving memories that become legend, then fade to myth, and are long forgot when that Age comes again.”

Jordan’s opening sentence creates a sense of both wonder and time. The cyclical nature of history, spanning ages and legends and then repeating itself, is key to understanding the World of the Wheel. Heroes of old, recalled only in gleeman’s tales, are reincarnated, and dark times long past must be endured once again. Time is not linear but circular, giving the narrative a sense of timelessness and perpetuity.

“Ta’veren pull history along behind them and shape the Pattern just by being, but the Wheel weaves ta’veren on a tighter line than other men.”

Rand, Mat, and Perrin are all ta’veren, and, like it or not, they are deeply integrated into the Pattern of the Wheel. Loial explains in his dispassionate and scholarly way that the three young men from Emond’s Field are powerless over their fate and surrendering to the whims of the Pattern is inevitable. Concepts like ta’veren and the Pattern imbue Jordan’s tale with a sense of unwavering momentum.